Slinger Jansen Visting: University College London Home institution: UtrechtUniversity. i.e., the processes of:

Transcription

1 Programme Introduction to Software and Configuration Updating CCU Model description Enterprise Information Systems for Software Vendors: bringing the vendor and customer closer together An enterprise information system for CCU Our case study research Practical examples Agile community Software supply networks Discussion and conclusions SIKS Dutch/Belgian Enterprise Information Systems Day Slinger Jansen Visting: University College London Home institution: UtrechtUniversity Context of Configuration Updating Main research question: Can product software release, delivery, and deployment be improved by explicitly managing software and customer knowledge within a software supplier s organization? It s about product software: To date product software is a packaged configuration of software components or a software-based service, with auxiliary material, which is released for and traded in a specific market [] Definition: CCU configuration updating: the combination of the vendor side release process, the product update delivery process, the customer side deployment process, and activation and usage process [] L Xu and S Brinkkemper, Concepts of product software: Paving the road for urgently needed research, in First International Workshop on Philosophical Foundations of Information Systems Engineering LNCS, Springer-Verlag, 005 ie, the processes of: Release Delivery Deployment Activation and usage What s the problem? No definition of the CCU process No method to evaluate a software supplier s CCU process No tools that suffice all the needs of a software supplier CCU Model Models the interaction between software vendors and its customers for each process area Based on: Carzaniga Sofa Update model Used to evaluate CCU processes of nine (9) case studies in the product software industry S Jansen, S Brinkkemper, and G Ballintijn, A process framework and typology for software product updaters, in Ninth European Conference on Software Maintenance and Reengineering IEEE, 005, pp Definition and Validation of the Key Process Areas of Release, Delivery and Deployment of Software Vendors: turning the ugly duckling into a swan, proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM006, Scientific track), Philadelphia, PA, USA, September, 006 Accepted for publication

2 Vendor Deployment Delivery Release Activation & Usage SW Development Software Configuration Management System Sales Vendor Release Repository R R Rn Deployment Support Licenses Usage Support Relationship Management System Advertise Update Deliver Update Deployment Feedback License(s) Usage Feedback Uninformed Receive Info Informed Receive Update Possesses Update Deploy/Install Update Installed Configure Activate Update Reconfigure Activated Remove Rollback/ Deinstall Deactivate Required Functions for a PSW EIS Development Project management (development, release management) Workflow management (development) Software configuration management (development, release management) Bug track system (support, development, maintenance) relationship management (marketing, support system integration, FRCs, licensing, etc) data management (release management, variability, etc) Deployment support (software delivery and deployment, media creation) Delivery support (internal/external publishing portals, release information portals, etc) Data gathering (pay-per-use, commonly used features, bug reporting, etc) Release Management Release planning (tools, workflow, project, internal communication, etc) Release publishing (tools, connection to website) The federated product (enterprise integration, exception handling in the supply chain, etc) Case Study Approach Exploratory case studies at product software companies (3-8 weeks) Interview sessions with personnel Two interviews per interviewee (h each) Exploratory Cross checking observations Case study protocol that has been applied to six cases to date Case study knowledgebase Peer reviewing of process and knowledge acquisition A method for evaluating CCU for any vendor The CCU evaluation method is based on SPICE, the Software Process Improvement and Capability determination (much akin to CMM-i) Provides a method to evaluate the processes of release, delivery, deployment, and activation and usage seperately, or integrated This is done through questions such as Is there a release plan with regards to your software product that is available to all staff? Method developed through six case studies at Dutch software vendors Company size from 60 to 500 employees Between 00 and 60,000 customers Same method (case study protocol) for each case Exact Software () ERP Software manufacturer Large range of products Subjects of case: e-portal product Deployment tool ES has customers Small to medium enterprise market Aiming for larger customers 05 employees Development takes place (mainly) in three locations: United States The Netherlands Malaysia Exact Software () Serves large amount of customers by Explicit management of CCU process CRM and CCU integration Explicit license management Oversimplification has lead to absence of SCM Proprietary tools for CCU support All of a sudden our build servers had no more time left to build That s when we realized we needed a new way of thinking about the build process, and we relocated our builders the next day See: S Jansen, G Ballintijn, S Brinkkemper, and A van Nieuwland Integrated development and maintenance for the release, delivery, deployment, and customization of product software: a case study in mass-market erp software In Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, volume 8, pages 33 5 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 006

3 e-synergy Portal Sold to customers Used internally as well Combines: Documents (SCM) Financials Logistics (PDM) Project CRM HRM Workflow Used internally for CRM/PDM/SCM Employee Portal Documents Workflow Financials DB HRM Logistics CRM Project Reseller Portal Supplier Portal Software Configuration Management Data Management Version control () Artefact management Maintenance process support composition (even some variability support) Workflow management Projects are composed of tasks Tasks are attached to items in the PDM Weekly releases Allow for different views Promotion scheme Eats own dogfood Development Repository D Sales view looks at deliverables Executables Manuals Promotional material Developer view looks at product relationships and source items Quality Assurance Repository Release C Internal customers Repository Release BB Pilot customers Repository Release AA s Repository 0 Relationship Management Architecture for custom solutions Database CRM Contracts Database s PDM Lines SCM Deliverable Source files Artifacts can download and install updates Contract, Binary Source, Automatic license renewal on vendor side Automatic post deployment user feedback - Version number of new version is sent after update by the update tool Contract, Line Binary Binary 3 Source, Both vendor and customer side license management are explicit 3 Contract, 3 Line Binary 4 Binary 5 Source, Source, 4 Contract, 4 Binary 6 Source 3, 5 Contract 3, 5 Line 3 Binary 7 Binary 8 3

4 Maintenance Vendor side: Integrated system thus supports Version control Software configuration management composition Manage deliverables Build problems are solved (three timezones) Release and delivery is can be done more effectively allowing ES to serve many (60k!) customers side: On the customer side the integrated system thus supports License renewal Customised solutions Updating process Automatic feedback s spend less time updating and encounter less problems Please mind: All this is possible only because Exact Software builds product for a limited number of technologies, with a very stable and rigid development process Planon and the agile community Integrating different systems Sourceforge (used to be Visual SourceSafe) Bugzilla (used to be Planon CRM) Planon CRM Planon Licenser (proprietary (!)) Planon update packages (proprietary (!)) Don t build an information system unless you need it! Excel sheets work fine! Reporting tools change constantly However, some functions will not change Software configuration management data management relationship management Project and workflow management The agile community requires enterprise information systems too! So what s left to discover? Software vendors organize in federations Focus lies on customer interaction and knowledge sharing However, no tools dealing with software supply networks Information portals required for both customers and resellers/partners/etc Integration of different development management methods with project management and workflow systems software knowledge infrastructure software management workbench Componentization of information systems (who needs feature X?) Development of release repositories and software delivery portals Component-Off-The-Shelf evaluation and acquisition systems Integrating product and enterprise information system Pheme Pheme is a tool for software knowledge distribution to transport knowledge between software vendors and end-users in a software supply network: Software and updates Feedback reports (usage, error, configuration, etc) Commercial information ( An update of component X has been released) License keys etc So what does it look like? A memory resident Pheme service A protocol through which Pheme instances communicate, and a protocol through which software products communicate with Pheme Example: Joomla configuration, deployment, and update automation Pheme serves well in a Software Supply Network Software Developer Cust Cust m Software Developer Cust Cust n Environment Environment n Environment m Slinger Jansen and Wilfried Rijsemus: Balancing Total Cost of Ownership and Cost of Maintenance Within a Software Supply Network, proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM006, Industrial track), Philadelphia, PA, USA, September, 006 Accepted for publication Conclusions and points for discussion There are no enterprise information systems that enable product software vendors to manage product software development release delivery deployment usage and activation Exact Software is most advanced, but Not generalizable No support for agile methodologies Not componentized No release planning tools (and many other features missing, such as COTS evaluation) Agile community needs enterprise information systems too! Software Supply Networks research contributes, due to more federation between product software vendors (eg, COTS) 4

5 Questions? Takehome: There are no enterprise information systems that sufficiently support software developers and product software vendors in their development, release, delivery, and deployment processes, even though there is an outspoken need for such systems Please take the time to read: S Jansen, G Ballintijn, S Brinkkemper, and A van Nieuwland Integrated development and maintenance for the release, delivery, deployment, and customization of product software: a case study in mass-market erp software In Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, volume 8, pages 33 5 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 006 S Jansen, S Brinkkemper Definition and Validation of the Key Process Areas of Release, Delivery and Deployment of Software Vendors: turning the ugly duckling into a swan, proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM006, Scientific track), Philadelphia, PA, USA, September, 006 Accepted for publication 5